John Gill's Bible Commentary Ver. 2. And he spake before his brethren , etc.] Tobiah the Ammonite, and Geshem the Arabian, and perhaps some other governors of the king of Persia in those parts: and before the army of Samaria : which, and the inhabitants of it, were implacable enemies of the Jews: and said, what do these feeble Jews ? what do they pretend to do, or what can they do? will they fortify themselves ? by building a wall about their city; can they think they shall ever be able to do this, or that it will be allowed? will they sacrifice ? meaning not their daily sacrifice, as Jarchi, that they had done a long time, but for the dedication of their building, as Aben Ezra: will they make an end in a day ? they seem to be in as great a hurry and haste as if they meant it; and indeed, unless they can do it very quickly, they never will: they will soon be stopped: will they revive the stones out of the heaps of the rubbish which are burnt ? where will they find materials? do they imagine that they can make burnt stones firm and strong again, or harden the dust and rubbish into stones, or make that, which is as if dead, alive? to do this is the same as to revive a dead man, and they may as well think of doing the one as the other; burnt stones being reckoned as dead, as Eben Ezra observes.
Matthew Henry Commentary
Verses 1-6 - Many a good work has been looked upon with contempt by proud an haughty scorners. Those who disagree in almost every thing, will unit in persecution. Nehemiah did not answer these fools according to their folly, but looked up to God by prayer. God's people have often been despised people, but he hears all the slights that are put upon them and it is their comfort that he does so. Nehemiah had reason to thin that the hearts of those sinners were desperately hardened, else he would not have prayed that their sins might never be blotted out. Goo work goes on well, when people have a mind to it. The reproaches of enemies should quicken us to our duty, not drive us from it.
Original Hebrew ויאמר559 לפני6440 אחיו251 וחיל2426 שׁמרון8111 ויאמר559 מה4100 היהודים3064 האמללים537 עשׂים6213 היעזבו5800 להם1992 היזבחו2076 היכלו3615 ביום3117 היחיו2421 את853 האבנים68 מערמות6194 העפר6083 והמה1992 שׂרופות׃8313
